The present invention relates generally to board connectors, and more particularly to wire to board connectors with multiple contact points.
Hitherto, board connectors have been used to connect wires to printed circuit boards, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) 2006-172824. Such a connector is mounted on the board and is engaged with a counterpart connector connected to the end of a cable.
FIG. 14 is a perspective view of a shield of such a conventional board connector.
The connector has a shell 871 that is made of metal and arranged to enclose the circumference of a rectangular housing configured that supports a plurality of conductive terminals, thus acting as a shield. The shell 871 has an opening 813, inside of which is accommodated conductive terminal assemblies of the housing and into which is inserted a mating connector (not shown) from the front thereof.
A plurality of ground terminals 876 are formed on the lower surface of the shell 871 for connecting to the circuit board. Tongue-like pieces 875, are disposed between adjacent ground terminals 876. Each tongue piece is provided with a contact spring 874, which contacts the metallic shell of the mating connector inserted into the opening 813. The contact spring 874 has its rear end connected to the tongue piece 875, and a front end which is a free end formed as a cantilever and elastically displaceable vertically. This structure allows the contact spring 874 to contact the metallic shell of the mating connector. A side ground terminal 878 is formed on each side face of the shell 871 for attachment to the circuit board.